ok, so I went to the apple store last night to pick up my mac (was under warranty and getting worked on) so I walk in, and see this cute little boy, maybe 3 years old... with a flashing light on his head... he has a CI, then he turns... and he has bi-lateral CI's... I watch him for a while as I am waiting to be helped... and the little boy keeps looking at me too... so i try to start a conversation with him in ASL... hoping that his parents didn't just try to "fix" him... he looks at me and smiles... then runs up to his dad and starts pointing to me. I try to sign to the dad that his son is very cute... but he just voices something about 10 decibles... (I think he was trying to point out how his child is different than what I, a Deaf person, thinks)... well the little boy eventually does sign a little to me... and I lipread his dad saying that his son "signs a little. but doesn't 'need' it with the CI". I show the little boy my HA's... and then put them back in my pocket, and he is just looking at me smiling as I am signing to him. A few minutes later... he walked up to his dad, and took off both CI's and started to walk away, dad grabbed his son, and put them back on, this went back and forth for maybe 10 minutes... where the son didn't want the CI's on... dad wanted him to have them on... son wanted to be deaf... dad wanted him to be "hearing". Little boy kept coming up to me, and being super cute, he obviously didn't want his CI's on and his dad obviously wasn't going to let him get around that. It made me sad to see a little kid, so young, without the choice, to use a CI, or not... such a complicated surgery performed on such a young child, not once, but twice... AND depriving this child of sign language.
As much as I admire your willingness to stick up for this boy,
and as much as I agree this boy should be given a fair chance
to ASL and Deaf culture you weren't the most diplomatic in the way how you approached this.
First of all these were total strangers to you,
you had no way of knowing the dynamics of the family and the particulars
of the boys deafness and his CI story.
yet you approached them like you knew everything.
Second and most important thing - you do not indoctrinate a child, ever - what for?
He's too young, way too young for him to make a difference.
If you truly want to make a difference, you should have mostly had talked
to the father, not the child.
The child was but a 3 years old boy who couldn't recognize his butt from his head for all the good it would do him yet.
It actually says very well about the father that he was so willing to give you
all the time in the world to interact with his son,
and that the boy knew some sign at least.
You, on the other hand knew zero facts about both of them
and what have happened, how severe is the hearing loss,
why was he implanted and when, what REALLY are his parents plans etc.
For all we know the father didn't wish for the boy to remove his CI
at that particular moment because after all the boy needs to train
his listening and speech abilities - isn't it a requirement with a CI, anyway?
Perhaps there is a time set aside for a sign language as well later
or there are plans for it in the future- how could you know?
You had all the best intentions, unfortunately, again the approach wasn't the greatest.
I think always having on you some reading material for the parents that would educate them how important it is for these CI children not to lose contact with the Deaf and more so, ASL
and most of all - provide links where the parents can reach
someone with experience in such matters,
would make more difference than trying to convert a 3 years old powerless kid, I believe.
Fuzzy
) The other one that is not digital, it gets all funky and dies out funky. Such is life.
